The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

The Lady Pioneers went 2-0 this past weekend against Hays Lodgepole Thunderbirds and North Star Knights. For the first time since 2009, it is believed that the Lady Pioneers have been rated number one in the conference. The girls beat Hays by 25 points with a final score of 51-32. The girls then turned around and beat North Star by 11 with a score of 61-50. The Lady Pioneers had four girls score double digits against the Lady Thunderbirds, with Jai Baumann at 17, Eva Yeadon and Jenny Sant at 12, and Keira Galbavy at 10. In the next game against the Lady Knights, the Lady Pioneers had three girls in double-digit scoring, with Eva having 19 and Jai and Jenny having 14 each.

The Lady Pioneers came out ready to play in the first quarter! The girls played aggressively on defense and attacked the basket with tenacity. Jai had some amazing passes and ended up with six assists on the game and six steals. Jenny also had a great defense with five steals. Eva and Keira both crashed the boards and got big rebounds for the Lady Pioneers. Eva had 12 rebounds, and Keira had 11. The Lady Pioneers went up 15-2 after the first quarter and didn't slow down.

Besides the one shot clock violation at the beginning of the quarter, the 2nd quarter was still dominated by the Lady Pioneers as they continued their aggressive play both on offense and defense and scored 17 points to the Lady Thunderbirds 7, going up at halftime with a score of 32-9.

The Lady Pioneers continued to succeed on offense and defense throughout the second half, getting some great action from the Lady Pioneer bench, putting up some great shots, and playing great defense. Brianna Terry, Elaina Weaver, and Korbyn Jurenka had some great steals and rebounds, helping catapult the Lady Pioneers to a win over the Lady Thunderbirds with a final score of 51-32.

The Lady Pioneer game versus Northstar Knights was initially plagued with turnovers. More so with Northstar, who turned the ball over 20 times in the 1st half. The Lady Knights struggled with the Lady Pioneers press, allowing the Lady Pioneers several steals. The Lady Pioneers had 20 steals in the game, with Eva Yeadon having seven and Keira Galbavy having four. The Lady Pioneers had five turnovers in the first quarter, but they gained their composure and still got things done on offense and defense. The Lady Pioneers were up six points after the first quarter with a score of 16-10.

In the second quarter, the Lady Pioneers took great care of the ball and had some great passes from Eva and Jai and some more steals from across the board from all the starters. The Lady Pioneers had great cuts to the basket and some excellent teamwork on offense with outstanding communication on both ends of the floor. The Lady Pioneers outscored the Lady Knights 19-7 in the second quarter, putting them up by 18 points with a score of 35-17 at the half.

Lainey Terry started the Lady Pioneers off the second half with a steal, and Alex Worrall had a big rebound and putback, followed by a 3-pointer from Eva and then Jai. The Lady Knights did their best to come back after making some adjustments, went on a run against the Lady Pioneers, and came within 11 points after being 21 points down. Unfortunately, it was a little too late for the Lady Knights as the Lady Pioneers made some big plays at the end and put the Lady Pioneers in the driver's seat, winning the game by 11 points with a final score of 61-50.

Travis Baumann, head coach of the Lady Pioneers, said, "In both games this week, we had dominant first halves of basketball. Our defense stifled Hays and North Star in the first half, and our offense was playing well. The second half was a bit of a different story. We were able to hold on in both games. We are working hard to keep up our intensity for an entire game. We hope to be able to do that by the time we get to tournaments. We appreciate all the fans coming to our games, at home and away. It has really helped."